UK Parliamentary by-elections

A parliamentary by-election occurs in the United Kingdom following a vacancy arising in the House of Commons. They are often seen as a test of the rival political parties' fortunes between general elections.

Members of the House of Commons are not technically permitted to resign. Thus, members wishing to resign or seek re-election are appointed on their own request to an "office of profit under the Crown", either the Steward of the Chiltern Hundreds or the Steward of the Manor of Northstead. Appointment to such an office automatically vacates the Member's seat. A member who resigns in this manner may stand for re-election without resigning from the office of profit.

An election to the House of Commons is formally begun by the issue of a writ by the Clerk of the Crown in Chancery. In the case of a by-election, the Speaker must first issue a warrant to the Clerk of the Crown to allow the Clerk to issue a writ. The most common reason for the Speaker to issue a warrant is that he has been required to do so by a resolution of the House of Commons itself. This requires an MP to move a motion to command the Speaker to issue his warrant. Such motions are moved at the start of proceedings in the House of Commons.

Since the date on which the writ is issued also fixes the date of the by-election, it is possible (as was done in the Northern Ireland example) to pass a motion requiring the Speaker to issue his warrant on a set future date. This procedure was followed in 1983 when Conservative MP Michael Roberts died on 10 February. On 19 April, Plaid Cymru MP Dafydd Wigley moved that a writ be issued for a by-election in Cardiff North West, explaining that the by-election was being unnecessarily delayed. The Leader of the House of Commons, John Biffen, successfully moved an amendment to provide that the writ would only be issued on 10 May, three months after his death, in accordance with the recommendations of the Speaker's Conference of 1973.[4] In the event, on 9 May the Queen granted a dissolution of Parliament to take place on 13 May; Biffen therefore moved a motion on 10 May to discharge the previous motion.[5] Unnecessary delay was also the explanation given for the decision of the Liberal Democrats to move the writ for the Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election in December 2010,[6] despite the former MP having been from the Labour Party.

As moving a writ for a by-election takes priority over all other business, MPs sometimes use it as a tactic in order to talk out another subject. In January 1989, Dennis Skinner moved the writ for the Richmond (Yorkshire) by-election and spoke for over three hours; his action prevented Ann Widdecombe from moving a motion to grant extra time to her attempt to restrict abortion laws.[7]

When Parliament is not sitting, the Speaker may be required to issue his writ during a recess. The first legal provision for a by-election writ to be moved in the recess was the Recess Elections Act 1784 (24 Geo. III c. 26), which remained in force until replaced by the Recess Elections Act 1975 (1975 c. 66) on 12 December 1975. The procedure for issuing a writ involves two MPs presenting the Speaker with a certificate stating that there is a vacancy. The Speaker must then publish notice of his receiving the certificate in the London Gazette; six days after inserting the notice in the London Gazette, the Speaker will issue a warrant for the new writ. Recess writs cannot be issued where the vacancy has arisen as a result of a MP resigning. The Speaker is empowered to appoint between three and seven senior MPs to exercise his powers to issue recess writs when he is out of the country or there is no Speaker.

Under section 33 of the Bankruptcy Act 1883 (46 & 47 Vict. c. 52), where a Member of Parliament is declared bankrupt, they are granted a period of six months to discharge themselves. At the end of that time the court which ordered the bankruptcy is required to notify the Speaker, and the seat is vacated. The Speaker is required to insert a notice in the London Gazette of the fact and then to issue a warrant for a new writ after six days.

If the polling day for a by-election is overtaken by a dissolution of Parliament, the writ is automatically cancelled; the last such occasion was in 1924 when a writ for a by-election in London University was issued during the recess on 22 September 1924. Four candidates were nominated when nominations closed on 1 October, with polling scheduled for 13–17 October.[10] When the government fell over the Campbell Case, the Prime Minister obtained a snap dissolution on 9 October, and the by-election did not take place.[11] The most recent cancellation of a planned by-election was in Manchester Gorton which was due to take place on 4 May 2017, on the same day as the local elections, but was cancelled when Prime Minister Theresa May called a snap general election for 8 June 2017 and Parliament was dissolved before 4 May.

A Speaker's Conference on electoral law in 1973 proposed several changes to how by-elections are usually conducted:[12]

1. The Conference, conscious that the intervals before the issue of by-election writs have on occasion been unduly prolonged, put forward the following guidelines:

(a) The motion for a writ for a by-election should normally be moved within three months of a vacancy arising.

(b) It is inexpedient for by-elections to be held in August, or at the time of local elections in April/May, or in the period from mid-December to mid-February before (under present arrangements) a new Register is issued.

(c) Consequently, if this restriction should bring the date of the by-election into one of these periods, the by-election should if practicable be held earlier. If this is impractical the period should be lengthened by the shortest possible additional time. The total period (from vacancy to the moving of the writ) should not be more than four months.

(d) In the fifth year of a Parliament, some relaxation of these guidelines should be allowed, in order if possible to avoid by-elections being held immediately before a general election.

The Speaker's Conference recommended that these provisions should be embodied in a resolution of the House, but no such resolution has been proposed.[12]

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By-elections are often seen as tests of the popularity of the government of the day, and attract considerable media attention. Voters, knowing that the result will rarely overturn a government's majority in the Commons, may vote differently from their normal voting patterns at general elections. By-elections may reflect specific local issues, and often have lower turnout.[13] Thus large changes in vote share can happen, and the results of by-elections can affect or highlight political parties' fortunes, as with the sequence of by-election victories by the Liberal Party in 1972-3, and the SNP's win in the 1967 Hamilton by-election.[14]

Labour incumbent Jamie Reed vacated his seat to take up a job in the nuclear industry. The Conservative Party gained the seat on a swing of 6%, despite it having been held by Labour since its creation. This was the first by-election gain for a government since 1982.[15] The Conservatives retained the seat at the 2017 general election.

The incumbent Conservative MP, Zac Goldsmith, resigned his seat, and the Conservative whip, in protest at the government's proposal to build a third runway at Heathrow airport. This was less than six months after the referendum on the UK's membership of the European Union, in which Goldsmith had campaigned for a Leave vote, despite his constituents voting heavily in favour of Remain. In the election, his opponents were able to nullify the Heathrow issue and focus voters' attention on the government's handling of Brexit. Despite both the Conservatives and UKIP choosing not to nominate candidates and instead backing Goldsmith, the Liberal Democrat candidate Sarah Olney won the seat with a 21.7% swing. Goldsmith later won the seat back in the 2017 general election by a narrow margin, a majority of 45.

Former Shadow Home SecretaryDavid Davis resigned as an MP to trigger a by-election, in order to spark a wider debate on the issue of civil liberties. He was not opposed by Labour nor by the Liberal Democrats. The number of candidates was the greatest in a Westminster election.

A by-election gain for Labour from the Conservatives which left the Conservative government without a majority, just over two months before the general election in which Labour won by a landslide to end 18 years of Conservative government.

The incumbent Conservative MP, Ian Gow, was killed by the IRA, and in the by-election the seat was lost to the Liberal Democrats. This by-election came in the final weeks of Margaret Thatcher's eleven years as prime minister, when the Conservative government was trailing Labour in the opinion polls largely due to the recent introduction of poll tax.

Former Labour Home Secretary, and then leader of the SDP, Roy Jenkins, re-entered parliament, months after narrowly missing out on a seat at Warrington, Cheshire, which Labour narrowly retained. Tam Galbraith, who was the former MP, became the last Conservative MP to represent a Glasgow constituency upon his death.